Tiny Brains gameplay demo

Co-op mouse mania

Four mice with psychokinetic powers, working in tandem to escape from a lab. Need we say more? OK, fine. Tiny Brains was one of our favorite indie surprises for E3 2013: a four-player cooperative puzzler made by a new team of industry veterans, Spearhead Games. Players must work together (or scream at each other) in the effort to effectively utilize their lab rat's special ability as they traverse a test chamber and other environments. Our rodent heroes have mutated into miniature gods, able to force-push objects, pull objects to them, teleporting by switching places with something, or create a movable block of ice with the power of their mind.

The regular gameplay gives each supermouse a chance to shine, but it can be tricky figuring out who's doing what when you're just watching. That's why our gameplay demo above focuses on the game's shockingly addictive, simple-to-follow minigame: a tower climb that requires everyone to push a ball up an infinite tunnel covered in glass floors and pitfalls. Admittedly, we had some developers on our side; see if you can guess which pathetic, unhelpful mouse we are in the video above.